Please help - very frustrated!!

[nmp80]

Please help - very frustrated.

Hi,
I have a 90 gallon tank. Ran it for about a year with fish only and it died...it sat for 3 months...I did a total water change and 2 months ago started it back up....

My current 2 main problems are loss of ph and fish die instantly when added....I tried adding (2) green chromis on two separate occasions, and they literally died within 30 seconds of entering tank....
I am reading 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and 10ppm nitrate. salinity is 1.024, temp is 78-80.
KH is 12.... I do not understand why ph would keep dropping off with a KH of 12.... I have been adding aquavitro "balance" to raise the pH, as it does not raise kh too.... the next day, its back down to 7.8 or so....
I thought it might be an oxygination issue, so I added a powerhead and a large external air pump with (2) 6-inch airstones...
I am currently running (2) eheim canistar filters with large sprayer bars...one has 3 trays of media, the other has two.
I have approx 65 lbs of cured live rock in tank...
I have had success with tap water in the past, so I dont think I need an R/O system...it is also not very practical for my setup...
I just dont know whats going on.... everything seems textbook perfect as far as the levels, etc....I do not know why the fish would die so quickly... and why the ph is not holding...

On a side note, is it possible to overdose a tank with amquel plus? When i did my fresh fill, with 90 gallons tap, i added approx 1/2 a bottle of the 16 oz amquel....probably too much, but could this cause any troubles? I read a thread somewhere that said too much of it could suffocate the fish.
I also add "stability"
Please let me know any questions you may have and if you have any thoughts... I have spent a lot of time, energy, and money on this tank and am extremely frustrated, and one step away from switching to fresh water..
thank you in advance!

 

[JohnK]

I don't know about the fish dying so quickly, but the PH issue sounds like a Co2 problem.

This is fairly common in the winter, the house stays closed up and atmospheric Co2 levels become elevated. This leads to elevated co2 in the tank and causes depressed PH. Increasing airation doesn't help, because it's just mixing in more air with excess co2.

Try opening a few windows and airing out the room for an hour or two, then check the PH and see if there is any rise.

FWIW, PH maintence additives that DON'T affect alk are basically useless. Proper KH levels are key to maintining PH. With proper KH, the only thing that drives PH down is elevated Co2. The stuff your adding only helps for a few hours then it's gone, that's uselsee IMO .

 

[sciknen]

yea i would stop adding things as well


wats the proper ph level..i thought 7.5-8 was what your supposed to shoot for??
not trying to hijack

 

[JohnK]

IIRC 7.8-8.4 would be considered the "normal" range.

7.8 shouldn't hurt fish, but if it's that low all the time, and KH is normal, then something is pushing it down.

 

[addictedreefer]

You did add a water conditioner to your tap water to remove chlorine right?

 

[cakemanPA]

The cycle of adding things to tap water to get adequate salt water for aquariums is an ugly and never ending cycle. Been there and done that in a former reefing life. Never again for me...

 

[nmp80]

thanks so much for your message...
the only reason i was not adding the kent marine buffer to adjust the kh, is because the kh is already 12.... last time i added the ph buffer, the kh went through the roof to 25, so someone suggested the aquavitro...but you hit it on the head...it only raises ph for a few hours, so im not sure what to do...thanks again for the reply...

 

[Ray]

I am going to guess it is something in your tap water

 

[Jennifer]

I agree with the above.
Also what are you measuring your salinity with? Refractometer, swing needle, etc.

Only 3 things I know can kill a fish that fast. Large Ph swings, Temperature, and large Salinity changes.
Chlorine will certainly kill a fish quick, but I do not believe it would do so in 30 seconds. Unless you have extremely high levels in your tap water.

edit: I forgot about High ammonia levels as well.

 

[Aquadiva]

is there anything else alive in the tank?? snails, shrimp, anykind of clean up crew or coral??

I'm trending towards Ray opinion, that there is something in the water...

 

[Leroy]

Do you have live sand, crushed coral or dolomite in which dolomite can look like crushed coral and used with salt water is toxic releasing a poison.

 

[JackTheReefer]

I also agree it's something in the water or something foregin that was once added to the tank.

Well water or Municipal?

IMO, there must be something pretty potent in the tank for a fish to die in 30 seconds.

You might want to get a poly filter http://www.poly-bio-marine.com/polyfilter.html in an effort to try and remove whatever might be in the tank. Without knowing what is causing your problem adding a poly filter (which aren't cheap) would only work by chance but worth it IMO.

If all your readings are correct there should be no reason your fish die so quickly or at all for that reason.

 

[tmanmtb]

Wow

WOW 30 Seconds they would live longer in the air.::

Hi,
I have a 90 gallon tank. Ran it for about a year with fish only and it died...it sat for 3 months...I did a total water change and 2 months ago started it back up....

My current 2 main problems are loss of ph and fish die instantly when added....I tried adding (2) green chromis on two separate occasions, and they literally died within 30 seconds of entering tank....
I am reading 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and 10ppm nitrate. salinity is 1.024, temp is 78-80.
KH is 12.... I do not understand why ph would keep dropping off with a KH of 12.... I have been adding aquavitro "balance" to raise the pH, as it does not raise kh too.... the next day, its back down to 7.8 or so....
I thought it might be an oxygination issue, so I added a powerhead and a large external air pump with (2) 6-inch airstones...
I am currently running (2) eheim canistar filters with large sprayer bars...one has 3 trays of media, the other has two.
I have approx 65 lbs of cured live rock in tank...
I have had success with tap water in the past, so I dont think I need an R/O system...it is also not very practical for my setup...
I just dont know whats going on.... everything seems textbook perfect as far as the levels, etc....I do not know why the fish would die so quickly... and why the ph is not holding...

On a side note, is it possible to overdose a tank with amquel plus? When i did my fresh fill, with 90 gallons tap, i added approx 1/2 a bottle of the 16 oz amquel....probably too much, but could this cause any troubles? I read a thread somewhere that said too much of it could suffocate the fish.
I also add "stability"
Please let me know any questions you may have and if you have any thoughts... I have spent a lot of time, energy, and money on this tank and am extremely frustrated, and one step away from switching to fresh water..
thank you in advance!

 

[bill120mph]

How long and how did you acclimate the fish?

 

[stingythingy45]

^^^
+1

How do you acclimate the fish?
If you take a fish from LFS bag of water that's at say 9 dkh and put it in your tank at 12 dkh,not good.
I also agree with the possibility of something in the tap water.I'd go purchase some ro/di at the lfs and do massive water changes.

 

[jackthestrat]

Hi,
I have a 90 gallon tank. Ran it for about a year with fish only and it died...it sat for 3 months...I did a total water change and 2 months ago started it back up....

Please go more into the story here. What does "it died" mean, exactly? Sudden catastrophic die off? Over the last two months has any other life been in the tank or is it lying fallow?

 

[cujo6984]

did you acclimate??? try and find a chlorine test kit it wont hurt to test

 

[Ray]

Bring some water to a LFS and see if they can run some tests on it for you

 

[jbishop]

Run RO and acclimate 30 is really really fast for death.

 

[nmp80]

thanks all for the posts....
The tap water is wilmington MA...is anyone running a tank here or familiar with the water?

When I acclimated, I floated bag on top of my tank for 30..... then emptied bag of the 2 chromis into a small bucket, and slowly added my tank water for another 15 minutes, then scooped the fish out and put in tank... i am thinking i added too much amquel it is somehow suffocated them....i think im going to do a 90% water change and start over....it is very frustrating...